Staten Island health care gets a lifeline from City Hall

Staten Island Advance/Michael McWeeneyMayor Michael Bloomberg, standing, announces the loan program at City Hall to the delight of Borough President James Molinaro.NEW YORK -- Staten Island health care will get a much needed shot in the arm with city-backed loans to help establish new primary care facilities across the borough -- and renovate existing ones -- according to an agreement announced by hospital officials and lawmakers at a meeting in City Hall today.

The low-interest financing through the Primary Care Development Corporation (PCDC) would help Richmond University Medical Center (RUMC) renovate the former National Institutes of Health building on the Bayley Seton campus in Tompkinsville and upgrade its Bard Avenue building with state-of-the-art ambulatory care. Staten Island University Hospital (SIUH), meanwhile, would complete renovations of its Bay Street Health Clinic in St. George and Medical Arts Pavilion, as well as build three other primary facilities on the South Shore, Mid-Island and in Mariners Harbor, according to officials at both hospitals.

Those services would alleviate crowding at the borough's emergency rooms. According to a study conducted by the Richmond County Medical Society, nearly one-third of the patients who visit the Island's emergency rooms are actually in need of primary care services.

The hospital plans will be presented to the PCDC board of directors next month. But the fact that the city is guaranteeing the loans and Mayor Michael Bloomberg appointed five of PCDC's 15 board members virtually assures approval by early next year.

Though the exact amount of the loans has not been finalized, they are believed to "in the neighborhood" of $10 million for each hospital, at an interest rate of 5 percent to be paid back over 25 years, according to those in attendance at the meeting. But perhaps the biggest benefit is that the loan amounts are not capped and the funding stream will be available indefinitely.

The move was hailed as an innovative solution to the problematic health care funding issues on the Island. As the only borough without a public hospital, the Island receives little help from the city's Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC), which oversees and funds those facilities. The borough's hospitals and politicians have wrangling with the city for years to make up for that money with grants, but city officials have been reluctant to do so.